Host: The Association of Japanese Geographers
Grasslands in semiarid areas are some of the most sensitive ecosystems for wet-drought anomalies. Eurasian steppe spreading from Mongolia to Kazakhstan has unique "memory effect" in soil moisture anomaly due to frozen ground during cold winter. The soil moisture anomaly strongly relates with biomass variations in grassland, which causes migration of nomads, and of wild animals. In order to clarify the seasonal connection between precipitation, soil moisture, and biomass anomalies field manipulation was carried out in Mongolian and Kazakhstan steppe sites. The results exhibited that grassland biomass responds to soil moisture anomalies (drought) in annual time scale.
